I Wish I Was a Punk Rocker (With Flowers in My Hair)

"I Wish I Was a Punk Rocker (With Flowers in My Hair)"
Single by Sandi Thom
from the album Smile... It Confuses People
B-side	"A Light as Bright as Ours" "May You Never" "No More Heroes" "Something in the Air"
Released	3 October 2005 22 May 2006 (re-release)
Format	CD single, maxi single, 7" single, digital download
Recorded	2005
Genre	Pop, folk pop, gospel
Length	2:30
Label	BMG
Writer(s)	Tom Gilbert, Sandi Thom
Sandi Thom singles chronology
"I Wish I Was a Punk Rocker (With Flowers in My Hair)" (2005) "What If I'm Right" (2006)
Re-issued cover art Cover art for 2006 release

"I Wish I Was a Punk Rocker (With Flowers in My Hair)" is the début single by Scottish singer-songwriter Sandi Thom. The song was written by Thom and Tom Gilbert.

Thom has said on her website that, she wrote the song after being robbed of her mobile phone and other belongings one evening, leaving her completely lost and without any way of contacting her family, friends, or the bank. She says, "I wondered if that had happened to me back in the days of the hippies what would I have done and would I have freaked out so much?" [sic] " However, there have been much discussion on various websites about the inspiration for the song. There were rumours that she was an anarchist, or that she wrote it out of her love for .

The music video was shot in Bethnal Green in London.

The song was originally released in October 2005 by Viking Legacy Records, reaching number 55 in the UK Singles Chart. It was re-released in May 2006 on Sony's RCA Records label, and went on to be the UK's fifth best selling single of the year. Also successful in Australia, it was on the ARIA Charts for ten weeks at number-one, and finished the year as the country's highest selling single and accrediting double platinum.

Although only physically released in the United Kingdom on 22 May 2006, download sales the week before are counted for the purpose of charts, and it achieved number fifteen on this basis in the general charts (and number seven in the download-only chart). The physical release had three formats: two CD versions (one featuring the radio mix and "A Light as Bright as Ours", another featuring the radio mix, the album mix, a further remix, "May You Never" and the music video), and also as a 7" vinyl record backed with Stranglers cover "No More Heroes".

The single sold 39,797 copies in the week ending 3 June 2006, enough to reach number one on the UK Singles Chart, knocking Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" off the top spot after it was withdrawn following a nine week run. The song was nominated for "Record of the Year", but lost to "Patience" by Take That.